Introduction
The way that we have been running our societies and economies hasn’t been working for most life on earth, including most people, for some time.
Most people would agree that we want a world where:-
- Children don’t go hungry;
- Our pensioners and other vulnerable people are looked after and feel cared for and valued;
- Our children feel safe and can thrive, be happy and grow to be useful and content members of society;
- People who work hard and contribute to society are rewarded and feel valued;
- The air we breathe and the water we drink and swim in, is safe and not polluted;
- Other life on earth has a chance to thrive;
- We look out for each other as we would hope others would look out for us.
Whichever way you look at it – we have been failing on all of these goals for some time and so we have to reassess how we are doing things.
We have been doing business and running our society in a way that has led to:-
- Dangerous climate change and pollution making living conditions unsafe for both people and the other life we share our world with;
- Vulnerability to the many crises now facing us;
- Extreme inequality – with people rewarded primarily on the basis of how much money they have, not on how much they contribute to society. No one is suggesting that those who work hard shouldn’t be rewarded – but extreme wealth inequality no longer even does that;
- Polarisation – with people who feel let down being told that their problems are caused by other people who have also been let down – not by the people and corporations who are really responsible.
A key feature of our current broken system is the concentration of wealth, assets and resources – and so power – in the hands of a small group of mega wealthy individuals and corporations. This hasn’t worked out too well for everyone else, so a great way of trying something different is to help get key resources into community hands.
If you are an impact investor or a philanthropist you will want to achieve maximum positive impact from your money, and here we share some ideas on how you can do that by supporting community projects.
But we are all members of our communities – and here we also give some ideas on how we can all help people to make taking care of, and sharing care of their communities, the fundamentals of life.
Community energy
Community energy is all about people owning the means of supply of cleaner renewable energy at a community level.
Community land
As current land ownership isn’t working well, we believe that part of the solution is to get as much land as possible in the caring and sharing custodianship of communities.
COMMUNITY FOOD
There are an increasing number of great organisations producing food at a community level. These groups need funds to buy land and operate. Examples include:-
COMMUNITY HOMES
With house prices putting home ownership out of reach of many people and rents ever rising – access to good quality, secure housing provided by socially minded landlords is vital. Add to this the need for affordable energy so that people aren’t at the mercy of energy companies profiteering on the back of an energy crisis.
Here are some examples of innovative community groups who are filling this need:-
